


All we do is what we can.

by uncontrollablyyours



Series: my world is dust without you [5]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Angst?, BatCat, F/M, Gen, Helena Wayne - Freeform, batman and catwoman, breakfast conversations, bruce and selina - Freeform, i love them, some wayne family shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:21:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27975716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uncontrollablyyours/pseuds/uncontrollablyyours
Summary: Years have gone by so quickly, we’ve gone and aged, and still… the world demands so much from you. My love, it always has.
Relationships: Bruce Wayne & Helena Wayne, Selina Kyle & Helena Wayne, Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne
Series: my world is dust without you [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2194788
Comments: 3
Kudos: 23





	All we do is what we can.

His muscles are starting to ache, with every turn and every step. He realizes that a lot of this is due to the countless injuries he’s been through in his earlier years. His back gives him hell, his joints are stiff, and sometimes he swears he wants to throw a fit simply because the aches are too bothersome to carry around all day.

Sometimes, he looks at his daughter, and he sees so much of his wife. Helena exudes Selina in most ways. The way she talks. The way she moves. The way her eyes shine in moments of mischief or excitement. And he feels this sort of protectiveness, this annoying need that he feels to beg her not to go out at night anymore. He wants to tell her that Damian and Dick have got it covered. He wants to tell her that Jason and Duke are already on the job. He wants to tell her that she doesn’t need to do what she does. But he knows her daughter. He knows himself. Deep below the Selina in her, she is very much like her father. And very much like her father, she will not listen.

The pains in his body are worse when he realizes that Helena will soon experience the same thing.

“Bat, we don’t have to go,” Selina says, putting down her mug. “I can tell Lois you’re not feeling well. Clark will understand.”

Bruce smiles at her. Years have passed, decades have come and went, and yet Selina is still the most beautiful woman in every room. Bruce supposes it’s her eyes. The way they’re so green, and also not. But then he sees the way her mouth moves when she smiles, when she speaks. Or how her nose wrinkles when she laughs. Easily, he remembers that her beauty transcends one identifiable feature. It’s all of her.

“It’s okay.” He swallows, trying to ignore the ache in his lower back. He’s experienced much more intense body pains, but it’s different when you get to live with it every day. “It will be good to meet up with all of them... and I don’t want to miss out on Damian and Helena.”

Selina’s face turns more serious. “Tell me honestly. How do you feel about all this?”

For a moment, Bruce hesitates. But then he looks at Selina’s face, the eyes that are green but not so, the perfect nose, the beautiful mouth. He feels silly for even thinking that he could keep this to himself.

“I know that she is very much like me,” he says slowly. “And she is also very much like you. That.. is a deadly amount of stubbornness in her genes alone.” He sighs. “But a part of me… a part of me is still restless with the fact that she still has to go out and do what we have done in the past. It’s naïve to think that what we do renders the world to perfection, but it would be nice… it would be nice if it was enough. Enough that our children don’t have to do the same.” He looks at Selina. Her eyes gaze into him.

“This… relaunch. I’m gonna be honest, I really hate the idea. Putting them on display like that… maybe it’s because Damian’s my son, and Helena’s my daughter, and I’ve seen Jon and the others since they were kids. But to put them up there, like we were in the past, a Justice League, these people with so much responsibility, like we had… I understand it’s what the nation needs right now. What the world needs. I just wish… I just wish it didn’t.”

Selina’s hand has somehow arrived on Bruce’s hand, placed on top like a slender blanket. He’s unsure how long it’s been there. He doesn’t remember if it’s been placed there since they’ve started breakfast or only now. He looks at her face again. She’s aged. Her hair has become white. But God… she’s so beautiful.

“It’s demanding, what you’ve been doing,” she says. “I’ve seen your scars. I know how much pain you’re in recently. Years have gone by so quickly, we’ve gone and aged, and still… the world demands so much from you. My love, it always has. It has cost you so much, this war that you’ve been fighting. But I think you forget, Bat. This war has been present long before us, and it will continue to even when we’ve gone.” She smiles at him. “All we do is what we can.”

Once the table has been cleared, Bruce walks down the steps to the cave His ankles feel swollen and his knees are stiff. He catches his breath before he makes his presence known to the woman sitting in the chair where he used to sit, many nights ago.

“Dad,” Helena smiles at him. Her dark hair is put up in a messy bun, some stray strands falling from her face. Helena’s eyes have always been blue. Selina tells him that it’s the exact same blue that she fell in love with in him.

“Where’s Damian?” he asks.

“With Jon. I tried to help him with his speech but he ended up bitching at me, as usual. Thinks that the son of Superman can come up with more inspiring things to say than his sister.” She stands from the chair and walks to him. “Dad, you shouldn’t be taking the stairs anymore when there’s a perfectly functioning elevator.”

“I needed the exercise,” he tells her.

“Uh huh,” she replies.

She lets out a sigh. Helena’s arm goes to his, linking them together. At first, Bruce thinks it’s her way of trying to support him, which he adamantly wants to refuse. But then he realizes that Helena is leaning onto him.

“Dad, can I tell you the truth?”

“Always.”

“I’m… nervous.” She laughs slightly at herself. “I hate this feeling. This… anxiousness.” She rests her chin on Bruce’s shoulder, looking into his eyes. Bruce can see what Selina is talking about. These are his eyes.

“Dad, this whole relaunch… this event... it got me thinking. The reason why the government’s asking this is for some kind of assurance for the people, some kind of hope… but what if I’m not enough?”

The question makes Bruce smile. There’s nothing nice about it, but he can hear so much of himself. It’s a question he constantly asks, one that he just recently thought of at breakfast with his wife. One that he has been thinking of as Batman, as Bruce Wayne. It’s a question that comes with the job, with the patrol, with the deaths that you witness and the lives you fail to save.

“Lena,” Bruce smiles at her. With fondness. With recognition. With love. “These people… they will never stop asking for more. There will always be people in need, people hurting. All we do… all we do is what we can.”

**Author's Note:**

> thinking about batman (2016) annual 2


End file.
